March 17, 2017

Almost Mud

Past looks at the Delambre region revealed striations aligned in two directions - and this new view confirms them both. First is a general pervasive lination - little ridges and troughs - that trend from the upper left to the lower right. These lines radiate from the Imbrium impact basin and seem to be flow marks from when a mud (but not lubricated with water) of basin debris skidded over the surface. The second set of striations are much more delicate and only occur to the left (SW) of the bottom side of Delambre. The are shown more clearly on Carmelo’s earlier image, and are hinted at enough here to imply that they are real. The ejecta of Theon Junior (immediately left of Delambre) looks like it was pasty when deposited - it covers the terrain smoothly. And the poor crater Taylor (center left with peak) has had a veneer of ejecta splattered on its inner walls. Finally, notice the pleasing contrast between the highly textured highland surface and the very smooth lava of Mare Tranquillitatis.